The chip comprises an integrated circuit on the surface of a silicon substrate, said circuit specifically defining storage areas of the chip and a microcontroller part that handles, in particular, the management of the data among the various storage areas.
This chip, whether or not it is carried in an electronic module, is integrated into the card body and communicates with the outside world by means of electrical contacts or an antenna. Depending on its mode of communication, the card is said to be contact or non-contact, it being understood that there are so-called combined cards capable of communicating in both communication modes, with or without contact.
Conventionally, chip cards are used in applications in which they identify their holder and allow said holder, for example, to obtain a right, such as a right to access services or perform transactions.
Access to services sometimes requires a computer program to be loaded into a memory of the card.
However, these computer programs are increasing in size, currently reaching 8 KB and expected to reach 64 KB in the near future.
The throughput rate of the microcontroller of the card and the write time of the memories do not allow the instantaneous loading of large programs.
For example, the loading time of an 8-KB program into a non-contact card from a transmitting device is on the order of one minute, which is much too long to allow the loading of a program in the average time during which the card is in the effective electromagnetic field of said transmitting device, particularly given the fact that this device must handle a plurality of cards, as well as potential collisions between said cards.
In practice, the loading is then interrupted, and it is necessary to wait for the time spent in the field of another transmitting device to be long enough for the successful loading of the program in its entirety.